The Nanny Economy

I've never smiled when my kid wrecks my work

I should elaborate on the title of this blog. For me, The Nanny's Dead, not because I don't want one, not because I killed her, but because in my part of the world they cost $200USD per day. So for now, I spend $80pd on childcare.

If it is true that women are starting to out-earn men, and have out-educated men for over a decade, it might be about time for Australia to admit it needs nannies, and at least extend any childcare benefits to nannies.

Everyone thought it was amazing that we got paid maternity leave a year ago, but the $10,000 payment was not really aimed at high earning women and kind of came about 20 years too late. And was rounded off with a litany of insults against women not staying at home and Doing the Best By Their Children. A lot of people in 2012 Australia think that if a woman chooses to have children she has to pay for them - never mind the benefits of raising children. We might as well import all our food (ala Singapore) and import all our future generations.

Better late than never, but let's really get up to speed. Let's look around to see what the rest of the world are doing. There's Canada's thriving nanny economy, which rewards nannies for three years service with residency. I am quite intimate with this particular quirk as my husband's first wife was a Slovakian who had gained Canadian citizenship after working as a nanny for a few years. That's a pretty cool bonus for the working women of Canada. I understand Switzerland and several other countries have a nanny migration system.

I would love to have a Cambodian or Thai nanny but for me to even consider this I must be prepared to pay a minimum wage of $50,000 a year for her to get a 457 visa to Australia.

Is this not a little ridiculous? There are thousands of women in Australia who really want a nanny but don't have a spare $1000pw lying around and are not sure about the visa issues around employing a backpacker. My understanding is you must ensure she leaves your employ, or the country, after less than 12 months.

Which doesn't give you much time to get to know the Nanny. Which would be particularly unfortunate, points out my husband, if she were a hot Swedish blonde.